complacency

Definition

A feeling of contented self-satisfaction, especially when unaware of upcoming trouble.

Etymology

Late Middle English complacence, from Late Latin complacentia. Compare French complaisance.

Example Sentences

• "Others proclaim the infirmities of a great man with satisfaction and complacency, if they discover none of the like in themselves."
• "[…] looking at Mr. George Osborne's pale interesting countenance, and those beautiful black, curling, shining whiskers, which the young gentleman himself regarded with no ordinary complacency, she thought in her little heart that in His Majesty's army, or in the wide world, there never was such a face or such a hero."
• "There was something pathetic in his concentration as if his complacency, more acute than of old, was not enough to him any more. When, almost immediately, the telephone rang inside and the butler left the porch Daisy seized upon the momentary interruption and leaned toward me."

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